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Quint looks at the final night of QT3
I'll be wrapping up my own coverage of the festival this week, but till all that typing gets done, here's Quint's report...
Ahoy, constant readers. Quint here, this time with a tale of a
cinephile on a
voyage chasing the great white shark called coolness. You all have been
reading Harry's constant updates on QTIII I'm sure. I figured I'd write up
my
experiences on the final night of the festival, the all-night horror
(slasher)
marathon.
Besides Father Geek and The Big Man himself, I am the only one that
I know of
that has been to every single film at every single Tarantino Film Fest since
the first one three years ago. Even counting Quentin himself who missed a
kiddie matinee or two in the previous fests. I hold the honor proudly.
Nothing
but good has come out of it. I mean, I met Harry at the first QT Fest. I met
another good friend of mine, whom you all know as Tom Joad, at the second.
Plus I was exposed to films I never ever would have seen, like Horror House
with Frankie Avalon, and some that will go down in my book of all time cool
flicks (like The Dion Brothers and Pretty Maids All In A Row).
Of course hanging out with Quentin is a plus, too, but when I say
that, I
don't mean it in the sense of "Oh, look at the famous person" or "Boy, I
can't
wait to tell the boys who I got to talk to." It is well known that Quentin
has
a lot of energy and is a huge film encyclopedia, but people almost downplay
how infecting that enthusiasm is. I have never met anybody who could get me
as
pumped up for a film as Quentin. He's one of us, a true cinephile in every
sense of the word. I mean, when I was talking to him about Abby and other
uncommon exploitation films it was like I was talking to a skinny Harry on
speed. It wasn't until after the conversation that I thought to myself, "I
was
just talking with a guy that has an Oscar on his shelf and a film in AFI's
top
100." At the time of the conversation, I was just talking with Quentin, the
movie geek. If you factor out all the media hype (good and bad), and all the
Hollywood glitz that comes with his name, from the equation, you get this
cool
movie geek that gets excited over Fulci gore flicks and Jack Hill films. You
know, one of us.
Now to the horror night. I woke up at 11:30 am to catch the kiddie
matinee of
the day, Frankenstein Conquers the World. Now, this film wasn't my cup of
tea,
but I've never been a big fan of the Japanese Monster Movies. I don't know
why
that is. Maybe it's because I never saw one during my childhood. I don't
know.
I don't think the movie was bad, but it just didn't work for me.
After the matinee ended, I headed to the Austin Collector's Expo to
scope out
the movie posters and lobby cards. I found a cool Blacula one-sheet, but it
was a little out of my price range. I found a table that had a big stack of
folded posters for a dollar apiece. Out of the whole stack I found one that
I
wanted, a Venom movie poster. I ended up leaving the expo with the Venom
poster and four lobby cards (1 Boeing, Boeing, 1 Horror House and 2 Mother,
Jugs and Speed). Then back to the resident palace of coolness, The Alamo
Drafthouse. I was ready to once again test my endurance. Here were Quentin's
words before the first films:
"If anybody is thinking about leaving because you can't hang
with it and
everything, my mom's here and she's gonna be here until the end. So,
whatever
side of the line you want to be on is up to you, all right."
The first film set before me was Black Christmas (AKA Silent Night,
Evil
Night). The awesome poster portraying a female victim with a plastic bag
over
her head had been out in the Alamo's lobby for a few days. I was pumped to
see
this flick. It stars Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder, Andrea Martin and John
Saxon. It's a sorority house slasher film that made the phone scary long
before Scream did and it was also one of the first horror films to really
use
the killer's POV to it's maximum potential. It's a really cool flick with an
awesome ending. If you're a big fan of the slasher genre go check it out if
you can find it at your local video store. Look for it's awesome tagline:
"If
this film doesn't make your skin crawl, it's on too tight."
The next flick up was Eyes of A Stranger starring Jennifer Jason
Leigh in her
screen debut as a deaf, dumb and blind girl. This is a pretty cool flick.
The
scene where the killer is fucking around with Jennifer Jason Leigh as she's
making a sandwich is both hilarious and creepy. I've seen this one at both
Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, so it's out there.
I just about freaked when I heard that Quentin was gonna show the
next film:
Torso. Harry has a reel of 16mm horror/sci-fi trailers that he shows at
roughly every third backyard party. Torso is one of the best on there.
torso!
Torso!! TORSO!!! That was the hook of the trailer and the chant of our group
as the days to the showing of the film dwindled down. I liked the film, but
I
don't believe it lived up to the trailer. The film plays more like a mystery
than a gore film. There's nothing wrong with that except that it was hyped
as
a gore film and that's what I was hoping for. don't get me wrong, there was
enough T & A and nasty killings to satisfy me, but I guess I just wanted
more.
Here's what Quentin had to say before the movie:
"For the fist half of it you're going to think, 'What the
fuck did he bring
this piece of shit here for?' Now I'm really a big fan of Italian horror
films. You got to apologize for some parts of them, all right. Having said
that, I'm a big fan of them. The first part of Torso sucks. It's like "Oh,
My
God!" Once a plot thing happens, you'll know it when it happens, once it
happens it kind of becomes a different movie. Then all of a sudden you're
really watching a really different movie. Not only are you watching a
different movie, but all of a sudden what seemed to be so amateurish and
thrown together like it was edited with gardening sheers. All of a sudden
it's
really well done, all of a sudden it is really suspenseful, all of a sudden
the camera is really cool places and stuff. After it being really silly the
first half, all of a sudden it's really scary and the killer is really
scary.
You just gotta put up with the first half and you'll be rewarded in the
second
half."
Next was The Prowler, the goriest flick of the Fest. I had been
hearing Tom
Joad talk about this film since the first day of QTIII. "This movie has one
of
the coolest exploding heads I've ever seen!" And it does. I love this movie.
It has some of the best R-rated gore out there. I believe Savini had a hand
in
it, so to speak. Pardon the pun. Here's what Quentin had to say about
Prowler:
"This is what people have said: "Hey, Quentin. I'm really
liking the
festival so far. Lotta suspense, good this, good that, but not gory enough
man! Where's the gore? Well, we got the gore in The Prowler. If you've been
waiting for some gore, you goin' get it. In fact you're gonna get more than
you bargained for."
Hell Night, starring noneother than Linda "Lick Me!" Blair was next
on the
list. For those that don't know, Hell Night is about a sorority breaking in
their pledges by making them spend a night in the local haunted house, which
is rigged with various speakers and other devices designed to scare the hell
out of the pledges. Little do both the sorority leaders and the pledges know
that the house really is haunted. This movie was a surprise to me. I really,
really dug it. The acting is horrible, the story is cliched out the ass, the
dialogue is awful, but that just makes it all the better. It's extremely
cheesy, but extremely entertaining. The effects were surprisingly good. I
love
the decapitation early on in the film.
Last, but not least is Blood-Spattered Bride. Here's what Quentin
had to say
before the film:
"The film is based on a very classic short story called
Camilla, an old,
classic ghost story. If you know the ghost story, then you'll know what to
expect. If you don't, then you'll just find it out when it happens. Give the
movie about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, it should be rocking your world."
Now, I didn't know the legend of Camilla, so I had no earthly idea
of what I
was about to witness. I figured out it was an Italian film immediately due
to
both the dubbing and the naked girls with the hairy armpits. Being that it
was
the tale-end of the of the all night marathon (around 5:30 am) and my
reality
was starting to curl up around the edges, I don't think my opinion of the
film
is the same had I seen it wide-eyed and bushy tailed. I can definitely say
it's really weird with lost of nudity and sporadic moments of gore. The most
disturbing moment for me was when the asshole husband is hunting and finds a
fox in a steel bear trap. He then pulls out his shotgun and shoots it two
times in the head. This was all real and that's why it was more disturbing
to
me than the coffin dripping with red paint... uh I mean blood towards the
end
of the flick.
That was the all night slasher marathon, which, being the horror
buff that I
am, was the night I was looking forward to the most. Quentin didn't
disappoint. He hasn't yet.
-Q
AICNQuint@aol.com
-
+ Expand All
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The reports on the festival were well written and all, but I guess you just have to be there. I love Quentin's work, but sometimes I just wish he would shut up and make films. I don't want to wait 4 years like we did for Jackie Brown. What is Quentin's next project, is it still 40 lashes, and if it is how is it coming along?
-
Yeah, I know it might be rude and you're busy watching midget movies and all, but... anyone bother to ask for actual, uh, information? While he's around, that would seem like a good thing to ask about, maybe, for the rest of us.
-
Well, your humble narrator cornered QT in the men's room. The next flick will be called "The Second Coming" and stars Samuel L. Jackson as Jesus Christ.
"He's Back...and He's Black!"
Actually, I asked Quentin about
Burt Reynolds' early movie career
but wouldn't that be a great movie? A Jesus blaxploitation movie. Jesus could expose hypocracy amongst religious groups
and visit cool plagues upon them.
Imagine a plague of locusts bursting out of some Falwell-type's ass while he delivers some hateful sermon. That
would rule! -
In less than two weeks QT is back in Austin for SXSW to present a retrospective of Jack Hill (Spider Baby, Coffy, Switchblade Sisters, etc). As for those who want to know what his next film is; chill. I'm sure he could find a job pretty damn quick if he wanted to. Wouldn't it be cooler if the Q-man just laid low again for a couple years, then jumped back in and gave us something totally kick-ass? Maybe he can become the new Kubric: quality flicks with plenty of time in between. If I were a betting man, I'd put money on "Killshot" before "40 Lashes", BTW. (Yeah, he's not directing it, but it'll still probably be his next film.)
-
Actually it's kinda cool that he's showing all these films. Kinda like he's cross pollinating his idea stream. Where would Pulp Fiction be without all its
references? He just needs food for thought to make another movie. -
You'd think they'd have enough posters and shirts for everybody...
-
Are you fuckin' kidding me?!?!? Elmore's novel FORTY LASHES LESS ONE is one of his BEST!!! The way Elmore's dialogue reads, it's already Quentinized... A Zulu and an Apache... Quinten's script is going to be fantastic - I liked RUM PUNCH quite a bit as a read, not nearly as much as I did 40LL1 and he only makes really good material great. Oh, and what the hell man? THE PROWLER fuckin' rocks! Name me the movie with better consistently suble gore effects. When the chick in the swimming pool's throat gets slit and you actually see air bubbles escape her latex gash?!?! Fuckin' incredible man. Oh, and where the hell ELSE are you gonna get to see Farley Granger's head explode? Oh yeah, and the word is that Quentin has finished his script for FORTY LASHES.......
-
Er, make that best TOM SAVINI movie with better effects, yeah, yeah, the helicopter haircut in DAWN OF THE DEAD, the exploding head in MANIAC and everything in the kickass DAY OF THE DEAD. One can argue the man's coolness til the cows come fuckin' home.
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